Merry Christmas!
Like many fellow bloggers, I’m taking a break over the festive period – eating and drinking is far more important!
Merry Christmas to one and all and a lovely version of a well-known song by Billie Holiday. What a voice!
Archive for December, 2007
Wot no mushrooms!?
We went up to the South Bank on Sunday to visit the Bankside Frost Fair, which was all very charming and we had a lovely day out.
We decided to do lunch in Pizza Express, simply because it’s nice and child-friendly and we know A will eat stuff from there. I ordered a pizza with a topping consisting of ham, mushroom, olives and sat back to await its arrival.
Unbelieveably, it turned up with an apology from the waitress, because they’d run out of mushrooms!
Yes, a pizza restaurant had run out of one of its staple topping ingredients.
Not only was I irritated because they neglected to mention this before they cooked the flippin’ thing, but then 10 minutes later, I spotted one of their waiting staff sneak back in to the restaurant with two Sainsbury’s carrier bags full of mushrooms!
To be honest, I’m not sure what sort of point I’m making here, but surely a restaurant such as PE should be able to work out how many pounds of mushrooms they need on an average weekend?
From albedo to zugunruhe
There was one of the most enjoyable articles I have read in a long time in yesterday’s Review section of the Guardian.
It was one man’s (James Meek) quest to look up and learn every obscure word that he encountered over the past few years.
Meek mentioned a few words that I have come across myself, such as ‘litotes’ and ‘arête’, which briefly made me feel good, but most of them were as much a mystery to me as they were Meek.
The title of the article includes two that surely show how diverse and bottomless the English language is.
One point that the writer made, and one I wholly concur with, is that these words should not be lost and need to be remembered and used elsewhere.
I’ve long been of the view that we should use ‘different’ words and not the same, short, boring words to describe things. ‘Hirsute’ has long been one of my favourite words and is much more evocative and enjoyable than hairy.
Equally, I think more people should talk about the ‘antebellum’ period of history, rather than pre-war.
It’s not being posh, arrogant or a snob, simply wanting to keep words alive and not let them die out. Long live the English language!
Pointless, but great!
I came across this site by accident and, well, if you’re older than 30, then you’ll probably find it quite amusing.
All it is, effectively, is virtual cassette tapes, on which you can write a message.
If you want, you can then get the result printed onto a magnet, mouse mat, mug or other desk-style ornament for a price.
Pointless, but it gives me a sort of nostalgic glow.
